B2B Sales & BD Club · 2026-02-02 · 7 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
14 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Megan, a B2B sales and business development veteran with 20+ years spanning IT, manufacturing, cloud, and aviation, shares her practical perspective on pursuing a DBA while maintaining a career. Rather than focusing on academic theory, she addresses the specific challenges working professionals face: managing a multi-year commitment alongside existing responsibilities, adapting from execution-focused business thinking to research-oriented thinking, and leveraging industry experience as a competitive advantage in doctoral study. She completed her DBA at Audencia Business School in France and discusses critical success factors including peer collaboration, active supervisor management, structured use of program handbooks and timelines, and rigorous literature review - treating academic guidance much like client and stakeholder management. Her insights benefit mid-career B2B professionals contemplating further education, those uncertain about career direction, and anyone balancing DBA study with demanding work and personal obligations. The episode reframes the DBA not as a pure academic credential but as structured time for strategic career reassessment.
Transitioning from execution-focused industry thinking to research-oriented academic thinking is fundamentally different from an MBA. Managing competing demands of work, family, and a multi-year doctoral program drains time - often the most precious resource - leading to feelings of loneliness, exhaustion, and doubt about completion.
Having substantial business experience allows DBA students to connect academic learning directly to real workplace problems and pick up concepts faster than traditional students. Industry veterans can also ask more sophisticated questions and make novel discoveries by grounding theoretical research in practical business challenges.
Industry professionals often rely on intuition and common sense decision-making. Literature review grounds doctoral research in existing academic foundations and equips candidates to answer questions from their VIVA committee, ensuring they stand on established knowledge rather than assumptions.
Treat supervisor management like managing a boss or client: keep them regularly updated, communicate your agenda and expectations clearly, don't let them feel blindsided, and remember they have academic expertise even if they don't fully understand your business topic.
The DBA handbook provided at Audencia was designed to guide students step-by-step toward graduation. She emphasized not jumping to conclusions early but carefully following timelines and deliverables outlined in the handbook when preparing the research proposal.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is almost entirely composed of generic motivational advice and platitudes with virtually no novel, non-obvious insight for a B2B operator. The only mildly applicable idea - managing your supervisor like a client - is underdeveloped and occupies a single sentence.
trust yourself. Remember this moment. Remember why you joined DBA Journey.
don't be afraid, trust the school and the professors
There is no contrarian, first-principles, or counterintuitive thinking present. Every piece of advice (peer support matters, use the handbook, do a literature review, trust the process) is completely standard and recycled. The B2B framing is superficial and never generates a genuinely fresh angle.
You don't build a long term value alone.
I personally want to give up several times and doubted if I could finish it.
This is a solo host monologue; the host claims 20+ years of legitimate B2B experience across real industries, which is credible on paper, but none of that practitioner depth surfaces in the actual content delivered. The episode reads as a personal diary entry rather than expert testimony.
I have more than 20 years of experiences in international B2B sales, marketing and business development
I worked across industries like it, manufacturing, system integration, cloud and AI and now aviation
Concrete evidence is nearly absent throughout the episode. The only named specifics are the school (Audencia) and a vague timeline of 'three, four years'; no revenue figures, company names, research findings, or measurable outcomes are offered.
I completed my DBA at Audiencia Business School
You might spend three, four years with your school, your professor and your colleagues
This is an uninterrupted solo monologue with no interviewer, no probing questions, no follow-ups, and no productive tension whatsoever. There is no conversational craft to evaluate; the format itself forecloses any possibility of it.
Thank you very much for listening to me. I hope my sharing helps you as well. See you next time. Bye.
Today's episode is a little bit special and different because I want to share my DBA journey.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
《我是怎麼準備 DBA 的？給正在工作中的 B2B 專業者》 這篇是因為受邀回去學校的博士班進行分享, 跟新進者學弟妹分享經驗. 以下用英文喔~ 也把我的分享草稿在這裡進行一個紀錄, 對於B2B夥伴, 若有想要繼續攻讀產業博士的~ 也希望可以分享我的經驗~
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Hello everyone. Welcome to B2B podcast. Today's episode is a little bit special and different because I want to share my DBA journey. Not from an academic point of view, but from the perspective of B2B sales and business development.
The episode is for you. If you work in B2B you are thinking about a DBA or you feel your career is is changing but you are not sure what's next. First I would like to introduce myself quickly. My name is Megan.
I have more than 20 years of experiences in international B2B sales, marketing and business development. I worked across industries like it, manufacturing, system integration, cloud and AI and now aviation. I worked in Europe and Asia, often in expatriate road. I was responsible not only for sales, but also for profit and loss, team management and cross functional coordination.
I'm now living and working in Nantes, France and I completed my DBA at Audiencia Business School. I come from practice, not from academia and that is really shaped how I experienced the dba. Why I started a dba Actually it's a big life transition for me. I moved to France.
New language, new industry, new environment, middle aged women and Covid. The DBA was not just a title for me, it was kind of a structure, a space to slow down and rethink the possibilities for my future. I applied to several DBA programs here in France. In the end I choose Audenciat not only because it is innot but because one sentence never stop daring.
At that time, this sentence really described my life and my desire to change. Having a goal, it is very good. But trust me, DBA is a long journey. Originally I was thinking I want to become a consultant.
But you know, the DBA journal is long. It might change a lot of things. Your career may change, your definition of success may change. So having a goal is very good, but don't lock yourself into it.
And especially for people who has been working for quite a while, going back to learning mode, especially research mode is different, like emba, right? Because it's a research. So going back to the learning mode and research was very challenging. My experience is simple, don't be afraid, trust the school and the professors.
For me it's like getting back to a new language I had not used for a long time. At the beginning it feels slow and my habit was always to connect what I learned at school with real problems from my work. This is in my opinion the biggest advantage of coming back from industry. Because we already have so much business experiences.
In the end we can pick it up faster and sometimes with even more interesting discoveries. Another thing is you really have to work closely with your peers. Some questions are hard to ask your supervisor. In the beginning, your classmates walk the same journey with you.
I remember when I couldn't write my research proposal, a classmate keep encouraging me and that support really matter. And honestly, this is very similar to B2B. You don't build a long term value alone. Another thing is your supervisor end of the journey, you have to write a thesis.
And this you really work closely with your supervisor. For me, I manage them like manage my boss or my clients. That means you need to keep them always update. Don't make them feel panic so they can understand you better.
How to help you bring clearly your agenda and your expectation. So they know how to help you. Maybe they are not professional or understand fully your topic. But trust me, they have experiences in academia.
They know how to help you out to go through with this. And another thing is in school they have this DBA handbook. It is designed to help you graduate at the beginning of the journey. Don't jump too fast to conclusion.
Be open, be creative, be curious. But when it's time to prepare your proposal, pay attention to time frame and deliverables. Use the research handbook. It might feel a bit too early now, but it is designed to guide you step by step to graduation.
Finally, literature review. As we say, the biggest difference with the academia industry is is sometimes when you work long time in industry, you just have this common sense what to do and what's right thing to do. But when you come back to academia, literature review are so important. Because all of your questions and foundations already have the answers in the papers you read.
They can help you to answer all of the questions from your VIVA committee. You are standing on the shoulders of giants. My final message to welcome all of the DBA newcomers. It is such a long journey.
You might spend three, four years with your school, your professor and your colleagues. You must feel lonely sometimes because you spend a lot of time in this. And especially time is the most precious thing. We are all challenged by work, family and kids.
It is normal to feel tired, late or even anxious. I personally want to give up several times and doubted if I could finish it. But trust yourself. Remember this moment.
Remember why you joined DBA Journey. This courage matters. Thank you very much for listening to me. I hope my sharing helps you as well.
See you next time. Bye.
EP38: (上集)Burnout 不是脆弱, 它是訊號48 / 100EP37第一次以「Reviwer」身分審稿, 我學到的 5 個 B2B 思維50 / 100EP35: 女性談薪水的 5 個心理地雷（Say Less, Get More 給我的啟發）67 / 100EP34｜BM Thinking for BD52 / 100EP33｜動盪時代的銷售：從賣產品，到讓客戶「敢選你」